Sanity
by C.F.Winchester. Finalage
Summary: Suppose, just suppose, a picture could actually talk back. Oh yes, she can. I'm not mad, I'm in complete control of my Sanity. Everyone else is Mad.
1. Half

_I've had this...idea, in my head for so long. I don't want to push myself to hard with these stories. So if (when) I continue this, it will probably be a short story by my standards of what I consider complete. I just want it out of my head for now. It's an idea...and it's not a pretty one._

_This will be short, and any following chapters will also be so. I'm sorry in advance, but I can't afford to make them any longer. I'll still try to give quality though. XD._

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_Welcome, to..._

_Sanity._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Prologue:**_ _**Half**_

At fourteen, Anna knew much about this world, at least, much about the world she had been exposed to.

She knew that the staff was small, selective and professional. They did their job as servants and were not meant to be seen. This meant they were not ideal subjects to shower affection on or talk to. They often disappeared the first chance they got. They were a meal in your room and made beds, ironed clothes and clean laundry. Nothing more.

The castle grounds were enclosed, secretive, protective from attack or kidnapping of a young princess for ransom. She was not to leave those locked gates. Ever.

"It's just you and me, Huh Joan?"

Anna brushes a spare speck of dust off her favorite picture of the house, a robust frame of the bold Joan of Arc. Her fingers dance along the frame and play along the reflected light the frame affords from the resident windows. She moves her hand upwards to gently brush some dust of the painting itself.

"You never tell me to go away, do you? You never shut me out. You listen to me."

She huffs at this train of thought, and collapses unto a nearby chair. Bitterly, she watches a grandfather clock tick her life away. Sighing she looks back at Joan.

"Of course you don't run away. You have no other choice. You're a picture. You're stuck there, listening to me. If you even can listen."

Letting out a puff of frustrated air, she flops boneless in her chair, looking up at the ceiling now. Her old internal argument. It's a picture, it can't talk or have a mind to answer her, or even listen. Yet...what if it could?

She did not mean imagining it speak back to her, she had done that enough. She meant actually listen and respond. She could swear, half of the time, like some partially buried memory, she would hear Joan really answer a question or comment of hers...she could swear to it.

Anna looked up at the immobile Joan, her head tilted slightly and lips barely parted, eyes wide with curiosity and just a hint of playfulness. Some might call it madness, but Anna was sure, as she spoke out to Joan that she was not mad.

"I'm sorry I doubted you. You do listen, don't you? It won't happen again."

_Never forget it._

As she grinned from the thought, Anna bounded from her chair with a frightful energy compared to her lifelessness before. She had a friend again, someone who cared and wanted to play. What did it matter her so called sister never left her room? That she was locked in this golden prison of a castle? That the staff never so much as stopped for more than "Good Morning Your Highness." or "Your bath is ready."?

She was in complete control of her Sanity.

Anyone who said any different was clearly mad.

_**+~E~+**_

_I've nothing to say here. ~ C F Winchester._


	2. Fifty

_I'm glad someone likes this. XD_

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter One: Fifty**_

"I want to believe that so badly Joan. So, very, badly...but I don't. Elsa does not love me."

Anna looked up imploringly at the picture of Joan of Arc as the clock continued to tick nearby, but it was not Joan who answered her this time, but what must have been the debonair gentleman on his horse off to the side. It was a whisper of a suggestion that made her whip her head about to lock eyes on him and his steed. Yes; it must have been he.

_She wishes to protect you is all._

"Protect me? From what? She's my sister! She's supposed to be my sister..."

Finally, Joan put her two cents in.

_...and this is why I say nothing when you go down this road. It upsets you so. You may think I am ignoring you, but I am only trying to prevent tears. Perhaps she is trying to do the same._

"We used to do everything together."

_She's moved on, haven't you?You love her, you know she loves you, though you don't think it. That is enough. Move on. Now tell me about the squirrel again._

Eyes lighting up, Anna went into high relief detail, vaulting from her chair to illustrate with her hands the animated actions of a squirrel that had hoped the castle walls and had led the gardener on a merry chase about the grounds, cheeks bursting with sunflower seeds and bushy tail alight with action and quiver.

That was freedom; the devil-may-care attitude of the squirrel swashbuckling about and sailing away, finally free from the gardener by shimming up a tree and recklessly hopping over the wall.

It was freedom she'd never have, but she'd love to dream about it. A cough interrupted her reenactment, and her eyes swept the pictures on the walls. No, that cough was from one of the others. The ones who were no fun. The servants. She spun on her heel like a drowsy marionette to look and see a maid standing there looking rather uncomfortable.

"Your highness, dinner is..."

_In the hall. Since when is it anywhere else?_

"...in the hall."

Anna smirked at the predictable aside from a suit of armor. Duh. Breakfast in your chambers, dinner in the hall, supper in the chambers again. The maid spun about and retreated double time with a nervous step that probably had to do with the dull, bored and dead-ish look Anna had given her, mixed in with a casual smirk that probably unsettled her some.

_You should be nicer to them Anna. They are only doing their job. Now go eat. I'll be here when you get back._

She grinned at that. You could always count on Joan. She never left her alone. She was always here, waiting.

Unlike some people...

_**+~E~+**_

_This submission makes my total archived word count run over 800,000 words. I've written a lot here on this site haven't I... ~ C F Winchester._


	3. Forty

_I received no reviews to respond to. _

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Two: Forty**_

Anna smiled as she hid behind a chair. There was no way they could find her here...but eve as she thought that, a voice snickered in her head. She kept still, but her eyes wandered, and caught to hold the eyes of a little girl standing with an umbrella in the sun, smiling down at her in a field of flowers. Her smile was ore like a leer at this moment, and those beady eye sparkled.

"No, please, don't tell them!"

_Why not? It's hide and seek! She's behind the chair!_

Anna shot like a bullet from her hiding spot like a rat bolting from the scurrying feet of a person. A flash of red and green was all that anyone could see as Anna streaked down the hall and took a sharp turn, almost upsetting the standing of a suit of armor.

_Hey! Watch it, you almost knocked me over!_

"Sorry!"

Anna shot behind a love seat and hid underneath it's skirt, having a reunion with the dust bunnies there. She tried not to cough or sneeze as she held still. A playful voice of a boy floated to her ears and she held her self rigidly still as the imagined footsteps were heard.

_Come out come out wherever you are...does anyone see her?_

_She's not in my sight..._

_I saw her pass but nothing now..._

_I did not see her at all..._

_She has to be somewhere there, no one saw her after that point..._

Ooooh, the big taddle tales! It was not fair playing a hide and seek game with so many people seeking!

Anna kept herself still. If she just made sure none of them could see her...but her fun was cut short by a floating voice.

"Your highness...Miss Anna? Miss Anna~"

_Ha ha, she's being called, she'll have to come out now. I win!_

"Miss Anna!"

Anna slowly crawled out form her hiding spot, but before any pictures could jeer at her, the maid rounded the corner and beheld Anna in all her dusty glory.

"Miss Anna! Your dress is filthy! What have you been up too Miss? Your bath is ready, and not a moment too soon as I can see."

_I've won, I've won!_

"You haven't won, you cheated!"

Anna muttered the words, but the maid half heard her and turned around.

"I'm sorry Miss? I didn't hear that."

Anna rolled her eyes, or almost did, but the strict look of one of the elder portraits made her pause. That same portrait of an old man barked out at the younger gleeful voice to kindly shut it, because he did cheat, so the game was moot. Anna looked down at her shoes in a picture of meekness.

"Nothing."

Anna simply followed the maid wake silently looking at her shoes...she lost the game...but as she continued to walk, she passed by the corridor that held Joan, and she could hear the voice from far off of encouragement. She'd get him next time.

Of course she would.

_**+~E~+**_

_Essentially these shorts are on a continuous time line, so each chapter is some time after the last one. Whether they are the same day or several days in between is up to you, but I personally interpret them as being consecutive days, unless otherwise stated...but it's up to you. ~ C F Winchester._


	4. Let

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up._

_I should have learned by now that my luck is the pits. Every time I submit a chapter for a story that I have already written for within the last twenty four hours, it does not update the roster. So I don't show up on the first page of a section, and I believe no readers get a message for a new chapter update, sometimes my hits for that day also get eaten. (I.E: They disappear for all stories, and all stories read 0 everything for a week or so, fun.)_

_So I had to take it down and post it another day, that day being yesterday._

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter ****Three: Let**_

Pictures do not really speak. This Anna knew, but sometimes she swore they did. She paced the hallways, observing them, looking to see if one moved, if a flicker of an eye from a portrait or the creak of an old suit of armor was a sign of life. These were her friends...and recently her talking with them had become so real...

Was she really deluding herself?

She looked sadly at Joan, almost begging the picture to show some sign of life in her eyes. If she tried really hard, she could see a sparkle, but she was not sure if this was imagination or reality. She sighed. It had to be real...it just had to be. The alternative was too grim.

Anna plunked down on the floor. No one remembered. No one cared. She looked about morosely. No picture offered any illuminating comment, not even the suit of armor. For years, had she been talking to lies? Figments of her imagination only?

_Just be brave, have courage._

The whisper was so low, so strained, that Anna was not sure if it was simply her own thought train of an actual voice. Her head whipped about, hair flying. That was Joan. She knew it. It had to be. She strained some more...

Nothing, only silence.

She fell into a sad silence of her own, mourning the loss of her friends.

It was a while later that she picked herself off the floor and beat a weary trek to the door of her sister. She slid down, using the door as a brace for her body until her behind connected with the floor. She almost did not have the heart to ask the question that she had once asked every day with so much hope in her.

Slowly that daily question had become three or four times a week, then simply three, then twice or three times a week. Now it was simply twice, maybe only once. She was still foolish enough to hope sometimes, that's what her brain told her, but her heart kept saying that this would be the time. She'd ope the door this time...

and she would step back ten or so years where her parents were alive and Elsa still loved her with all her heart. When had this started? A sledding accident? Anna strained to remember...something about falling off a sled. She had nearly frozen to death or something, and Elsa had been driving the sled...like she always did.

Was that it? It was such a stupid reason to hide if she wanted to protect her. No. Her sister hated her after it, a much more simple and sensible answer. She wanted her to stay away. Anna had always been adventurous, energetic, dangerous. The calm, cool and collected sister to be queen Elsa wanted nothing to do with such reckless endangerment. She avoided her sister on principle.

Logic said this, but the heart shook and her knees did too. Her body felt ill at the thought. It would not accept the logic the brain was serving, and with some sadness the brain wet back into the kitchen and offered up the thoughts of instead Elsa opening the door this time to go out and play in the snow.

...and like always, the heart would greedily accept this same old recipe of mold and hot air, and let her hand raise just one more time, it promised...just one more. See? She even saw that she had turned around on the ground and her hand was poised in a polite fist ready to knock.

It always went this way.

She sighed.

...and knocked.

"Elsa?"

Silence.

"Can I...come in?"

Silence.

"...Please?"

"Go away Anna."

"...Okay..."

Resigning herself to fate, that's what her brain said, but her eyes said different. They wanted to cry, and her heart said, quite frankly, the brain could go and stuff itself down a hole and let the eyes run away with their salty water...but as Anna stood up, she had to admit...

...the water tasted far more bitter than salty.

"...Bye."

The loneliest person in Arendelle silently padded away.

_**+~E~+**_

_Hello~. How are you all today? Hello Guest, and Hello Grace! I appreciate your feedback! This is a bit longer than normal because I felt like giving a bit more ,but hey, that's perfectly fine since these are excruciatingly short any way. _

_~ C F Winchester._


	5. Us

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up._

_I can't decide on a length goal to set for this story. I was originally thinking this would be a short story, and that it's goal would be about 20,000 words, but then I thought to myself that I could not possibly make a story so short as an end game goal for it, but I also told myself that, truthfully, I could not see a reason to lengthen it._

_Which was one reason why I started this storyline at Anna being fourteen, it's not far off from the age she is in the movie, hence, this story's rising conflict, climax and eventual conclusion would be a short graph. However, I did leave it more or less open on how I was going to approach the issue, which is one reason I never really give many time stamp markers on these chapters day wise._

_Yet, more and more I find I want to make this longer, at least 40,000 or 80,000, but if this is the case I have some real constraints on how to move forwards. I'll figure it out though~. What are your thoughts?_

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Four****: Us**_

Us. A word you cannot use without a another person by you. Not...in the usual sense.

Anna was again by Joan, chattering away, only this time, any answer from Joan was forced, fake like.

If truth be told, Anna knew she herself was the one answering her own questions and chattiness. Day by day as more servants told her over and over that pictures did not speak, the voice of Joan grew quieter and quieter, more strained and less...real.

Her mind was closed to the pictures, all but Joan had disappeared...and it looked like soon Joan would be gone too...but Anna had promised. She would never doubt her again. Ever. So she stood, waiting for a response from Joan, and finally the barest of whispers floated to her, and for once, Anna delighted, for though the voice was dim and strained, soft and weak...it felt real.

_You must stop this..._

"Stop what, Joan?"

_Either you believe in full or let it go. You cannot keep...closing the door on me...and expect me to answer you still._

Aghast, Anna's indignation made her voice rise to a squeak.

"I've never closed a door on you Joan! I'm not Elsa! I don't do that...Never!"

_The servants don't believe in me. They fill your head with what they say and that drives me out. I can't talk to me if you don't believe in me._

"B-but..."

_Pictures don't talk Anna._

"No! You're...you're not a picture. You're Joan. You're my friend Joan. Don't...don't leave me alone...you promised!"

…

"Please...you're...the only mother I have left."

Anna paused after saying this. It had slipped out. Mother? But yes...Joan was the person who always talked her out of doing stupid things, gave her advice and company, listened to her stories and wiped away her tears. She was a surrogate mother...and she was not letting her go.

No.

She needed her. Needed that...Us.

"You're not a picture Joan. None of you guys are...You're friends. Brothers, sisters, aunts, mother...I don't need anyone...I have you all."

She repeated this in her head and out loud, over and over, hoping, praying for a voice to come to her...and she fell asleep with the buzz of her own words inside her head...and so she slipped again on the slippery slope, and her climb upwards was halted. She fell again.

These were not pictures or suits of armor, they were friends, family...and family stuck together. Thick and thin.

In madness and in health.

_**+~E~+**_

_Hello~. How are you all today? Curryboh! Hello, and thank you for your stream of reviews. I know they exist and do occasionally enjoy a good short chapter fic, but a writer is their own worst critic. I am used to writing chapters literally ten times this size and over. (The average here is about 600-700 words, I usually call a nice chapter 6000-8000 words. XD). So this is new and refreshing territory for me. _

_Hello Guest, I appreciate your feedback, are you the same guest from last time? XD. _

_~ C F Winchester._


	6. In

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up._

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Five****: In.**_

Anna stirred in her sleep, hearing a voice of one of them. The servants. It was a voice she recognized, but in her muddled sate was unable to place. She knew it was a servant however, because it resounded in her ears. One of those voices, the "real" ones, did that.

_Anna, please get up. _

"I don't want any supper."

She could feel a creeping smile in the voice that again resounded in her ears.

_I'm not calling you for supper Anna._

"I want to sleep here."

_I'm not calling you to chastise you on that either, though you really ought to sleep in your bed._

Anna woke up a tad bit more, and her muddled mind attached a name to the voice, one that smacked her awake fully with wide, staring eyes and a heart that dared to hope. No. That could just not be Joan talking...but it was! She rubbed her eyes, for she swore the picture was smiling at her, the eyes dancing with playful malice. She could swear she saw her wave. She shook her head. Another grin from Joan. Another picture leaned against his frame.

_So, she finally sees us for what we are._

Real! The voices sounded real! She shook slightly with the excitement, a frantic heart beating away, nearly rattling her entire body. Joan looked to the other with some reproach, especially as three others hailed greetings.

_Oh don't rush on her at once. Seriously! Let her sort you all out!_

They however, did not listen, and Anna did not mind. She leapt from her chair to see the moon shining bright through the windows, and rejoiced that the servants had left her to sleep on the chair. She wanted to dance along the moonlit corridors, and what better day than now? She zipped in a circle, reveling in greeting everyone she met.

She delighted far more in their strong, wonderfully varied answers, all so real and brilliant like that ever so bright moon. She zoomed down the halls with hardly a sound and burst into the empty ballrooms, where the moon shone in pools from the un-shuttered blinds and the floor un-naturally smooth and clean from years of wiping with no dancing. She spun on her feet, promptly falling down on her behind, but she was giddy with happiness as frames pushed her on, on, to the garden.

Finally the garden was a place where happiness could take place, as a lone girl danced about in the moonlight, taking a partner at each turn with a crowd all in it's own of the air and mind. To any who would watch her, she was alone

But far from lonely. Alone and free.

To her however...

There was a full ball in swing and she was it's princess.

She finally went to bed at dawn, slipping into her chambers just before the maids had woken up. Later on she would dance and slide by Elsa's locked door.

She needn't bother stopping to try.

Unlike her, she had friends.

...and she had let them in.

_**+~E~+**_

_curryboh, I often explore the topic of humanity, mortality and other such issues in my works. It's part of my love to explore the reality of a world I am writing for._

_Hello Sky! I'm glad this is meeting that standard, but I wonder if I can exceed it. XD_

_~ C F Winchester._


	7. Worry

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up.  
Review responses are at the bottom!  
_

_I apologize for the delay, but I had much to do, and little drive to write for this. =S_

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Six****:Worry.**_

"Now really Kai, you can't think that way. The child is simply lonely."

Kai rubbed his face with a handkerchief, whisking away sweat. He tried a different approach. Besides him, a pile of carrots sat looking forlorn but peeled, sliced and washed. He picked up a potato to skin it.

"She speaks to the pictures on the walls, the armor in the halls, and to any of us not at all!"

Shaking her head, the other looks out the window in the kitchen. Winter was coming soon. Not yet; but soon. Anna would soon have a birthday, and Elsa too. This was no time to speak of such things as where the kingdom would go or to whom and for what reason.

"Anna is a lonely child. She speaks to the air in thought to hear her own voice."

Kai shook his head, adamant. He tossed away his potato into the sink and picked up another, gouging out any eyes he came across with perfect precision. His knife grated over the skin before committing to the purpose of peeling.

"No, she speaks to the air and expects an answer from it! She does not simply suppose and think, she holds conversations with it, the pictures, she pauses for their speech, and calls them by names! Several times I have walked by to see her sitting by the picture of Joan of Arc and having a conversation with it!"

"Oh you speak nonsense."

Kai's face hardened and he adopted a tone as if one were reading a script, or speaking from rote memorization. He did not care to adopt the tones Anna had been speaking in,they had been far too conspiratory, far too familiar.

"Oh Joan, what do you think of this? Isn't it a lovely day Joan? Did I tell you what I saw today, Joan? On my honor I tell you I have heard her thus!"

Gerda shook her head again and turned back to the dough she was pounding. Kai tossed another potato to join the growing pile of peeled ones in the sink and scooped another few to set in front of him. Besides him, washed celery waited patiently.

"It matters not. Elsa is the eldest."

"Gerda, you can't be serious, the girl never comes out of her room, I don't even know what she looks like anymore, so long I have not seen her! Besides, she can't...you simply cannot rule a kingdom from your bedroom! She has no control, she will be unable, how can she lead?"

"No listen here!"

Gerda had heard enough and she spoke in sharp tones as her hands pounded the dough with un-warranted force. Her eyes were focused on the task at hand, not bothering to look Kai in the eye. Kai simply peeled another potato.

"If truth be told, the girl has considered the option of stepping down from the line-"

Kai set down his knife and brought the celery towards him, washing it even though it was already washed. He separated the stalks and broke off the leaves. Gerda shook her head at him, but he continued. He knew very little about the royal family...but he knew that Elsa did not care for celery leaves. Anna however, ate them.

He gruffly had to admit that was perhaps the limit of his knowledge of the girls. It wasn't true but it might as well be. He spoke again.

"You see what I mean however? This proves my point. This will leave the kingdom to-"

"Hush! Anna is not mad. Simply lonely. Very, very lonely. She had created imaginary friends and attached them to faces she is familiar with. She is a smart girl. She knows the difference."

Kai took a breath and rolled up his sleeves, looking about for a cutting knife he seemed to have misplaced. He wanted to dice the celery now.

"I fear you may be wrong. Perhaps at once time, yes. Now? I fear her imaginary friends have become very real...for her and her alone."

He located his knife and began to dice the celery. Gerda sighed.

"She knows the difference."

In another part of the castle, the sun shone in slices through the curtains, dancing about since they had been taken and tossed about in the frenzy of an energetic ball of green dresses and strawberry hair, Anna whirled about the room, having no care of danger from injury as she turned this particular study into a jungle gym. She grinned at the exhilaration of her speed and sheer freedom. No rules, no regulations, no cares, she was free. Yes she was alone, but she was alone and free!

She paused when an admonishment rang out in the room.

"Young lady; you are a princess! Kindly behave like one for at least an hour! You came in here for a book, how did you end up behaving like a monkey?"

She turned about to look sheepishly at the speaker.

"I'm sorry. But it's so fun to be free, to enjoy life! I'm alive! Why can't I enjoy that?"

He scowled at her in reproof. Then he adopted a mock tone of thought.

"Perhaps because you have duties to uphold? A certain decorum as a member of royalty to pledge?"

Anna let out a tortured sigh that sounded more like a frustrated yell, but it was muted, and the reproving glare was enough of an admonishment. Anna tried again with a softer sigh.

"All that weight must be getting to you, you used to be more fun Atlas."

Atlas, for his part, simply shrugged.

Anna, for her part, simply grinned.

_**+~E~+**_

_Hello Double. I am glad you like the psychology used here. It makes you wonder who will win I the end...and if you can truly call it a victory. XD. Curry, I always try to respond to a review, because I feel they are so very rare. I may have written a lot on here, but I usually write for "the other side of the track" meaning I enjoy exploring ideas that are not popular, odd ideas that usually don't follow the typical mold. So I don't usually get a flood of reviews as I would had I constructed a fluff or something else. _

_But then, if I did that just for the reviews, I would have felt like I sold my soul away. XD_

_~ C F Winchester._


	8. Price

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up.  
Review responses are at the bottom!  
_

_Again I didn't write for any of my stories, only this time it's because of my job._

_I do not own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or ideals. Only my imagination is my own._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Seven:**** Price**_

"Do you wanna build a snowman?"

She had not heard those words in at least two weeks. She was happy, but curious. Well no.

To say Elsa was happy was a lie. A dead cold lie. She was miserable, and her room showed this, as the frozen walls and heavy snow covered all surfaces available, even the walls, as a near blizzard raged down from the roof, which was also coated in thick ice.

Her sister, sweet, Anna. The little girl whom she had almost killed. How long had it been since she had seen the bubbly red headed bullet? Bounding about like a rubber ball with extra spring and even a pair of wings, the girl was tireless and hopeless...

...and oh so wonderfully warm and full of life. A vibrant being that just seemed to never be able to be sad, save for once.

A single, heartbreaking call to let her in after their parents perished.

The snow became a real blizzard now, and Elsa, looking up with the frozen lines of fallen rain on her face, could only let her heart fall further. She could not let her sister in. Never. Ever. Not with this to show for it. It was not safe.

Conceal it.

Who had Anna found to make her happy again? Who had she found to forget?

Don't feel it.

Did she even remember her?

Of course she did.

She had to.

Three quick knocks, a happy chipper kind of knock. It wasn't the servants.

"Elsa?"

Speak of the devil...

Her heart both rose and fell at the same time. Anna...

Elsa looked about her blizzard struck room. It looked as if she lived in the middle of a frozen winter wonderland, a place that never stopped snowing and showed it. Ice, snow that came up to the waist on the floor...icicles that came down to poke through her bed canopy from the ceiling...

Anna could not come in.

Not today, not ever.

Her heart fell as she head the voice, chipper and happy as always. In fact, it was so happy, it was painful. It was almost as if she were asking Elsa out of habit, not out of actual want to come in. She was an after thought. A duty to be fulfilled.

This...this was the price.

"Can I come in?"

Silence. The voice became wheedling, mischievous, and all the more painful to hear. Anna was the sun, burning bright with the power of summer. A red sun. This was the price for power.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

"...Go away Anna."

She, Elsa, was a blue moon. A blue moon of the biting winter, shining coldly on a clear, frozen landscape. The moon and the sun eternally chase each other in the sky.

"...Okay!"

That voice...so happy. Even when she said no. She was happy now to hear no. She had someone else now. She had found, finally, what Elsa had wanted her to find. Something else, the will to go away. The sun and the moon...eternally chase...until finally, only one chases, as the other runs free.

The sun runs free...and the moon, the moon who said with all her heart for the sun to go away...find she doesn't want her to go.

"...Come back..."

Of course, she said it to quietly, to herself...Anna was long gone.

"I do. I do want to build a snowman."

The snow intensified. The ice roared and grew. No one heard her.

No one can hear an icicle cry.

Not during a blizzard they can't.

_**+~E~+**_

_Curry, of course, most of them are of real people, but I won't say anything else on the subject. Only that you might have a possibility of being right, though if you are, not completely._

_Double, I will follow through and go into Frozen, but the movie will be different. How different though will be fun for you guys to see, I hope._

_~ C F Winchester._


	9. Thirty

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up.  
Review responses are at the bottom!  
_

_On my story,"Bonds Under Ocean Waves, I gave a full report on installment twelve of why I am late for all my stories, but in case you don't want to read all that, a short one here for a story designed to be short chapter wise._

_I became ill recently and was unable to leave my house at all, let alone use my computer for anything besides watching videos and falling asleep in the middle of them. When I went back to work, I had a mountain to do to catch up, so I was unable to settle down to type until now. I apologize._

_This week is busier than the bees that have spontaneously arose since the heat has come again. I'll tell you something, and I'm not saying this because this is a Frozen story, I'm saying it because it's the truth. _

_I Hate Summer. It's muggy, it's full of mosquitoes, power outages and the smell of anything left out in the sun with an expiration date, and it's also the days I have the least time to myself to write. Poo._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Eight:**** Thirty**_

Anna wasn't very happy with Joan.

Joan had told her to go and apologize to Elsa.

For what?

Anna didn't know, something about acting too chipper when asking if she wanted to build a snowman.

It was ridiculous.

Was she supposed to ask Elsa that question while acting as if she were inviting her to a cemetery for a funeral?

Admittedly that's how she used to ask her it.

When she was alone.

Desperate.

In need of the one piece of family she had left.

But she wasn't anymore! Elsa was the one stuffed up in her room all alone and miserable. Why should she continue to act that way too?

She didn't want to mope about her room staring at the same four walls all day everyday without only a few steps in either direction of variance. Hey the entire castle was hardly big enough for her as is!

...and she hadn't even tried to pick up any pictures or suits of armor to see if it had hidden passages yet!

Out of pure respect of course. Her friends lived in those frames.

Why would she mess with someone's living space?

Forcing the suits of armor off their pedestals so that they fell and often broke as some door opened?

Her friends talked to her daily, a passage would only entertain her for maybe a few hours.

It wasn't an equal trade. Besides, the pictures would TELL her if they had some secret behind them.

She had already been told about plenty of secrets in the castle.

Like the fact that behind Gilda there was a crevice that seemed to have been a message hiding spot once. There was an old piece of paper that she had found there...but it was in a language she couldn't understand.

That was months ago, she had thrown it away. It wasn't worth much time.

Anna found herself outside Elsa's door.

Her mouth was set into a frown, but she rose her hand none the less. She almost swore she could hear Joan telling her off for stalling...but Joan wasn't down this hallway. She sighed.

She knocked on the door and she heard a stifled gasp and a gust of something swooshing by. Anna guessed it was Elsa's dresses or something or other. She cleared her throat.

"Elsa?"

Pause.

Long Pause.

_Okay then...I need to make the second move too._

"Elsa? I'm sorry."

Another pause. Anna waited a while longer and then turned around. She had apologized. Joan should be happy with that. It wasn't her fault if Elsa didn't answer back. Yet there was a creak...and then a voice so close to the door I swore if I looked I could see her feet...

"Anna...?"

"Elsa?"

"Why are you sorry?"

It was her turn to pause now. Really, it was the same question she had asked Joan. Seriously, why was she sorry? She might as well answer what she thought...but while she had originally planned on saying: "For being happy." Her brain kicked into over drive and suddenly she had an answer that sounded less confrontational.

"...For hurting you."

Ana was about to walk away again, so long was the pause, but then the voice came out again.

"When?"

"This morning."

"...But you asked me to make a snowman this morning."

"Yep. It hurt you."

Really, how did Anna know this all of a sudden? She couldn't understand the logic that had let her arrive at this answer, but she knew it was true.

She had hurt Elsa by being happy somehow.

"I hurt you because I was happy...without you."

The last part wasn't planned, but again, once she said it, she was certain it was true. It wasn't that Elsa wanted Anna to be unhappy...she wanted to be happy _with her_.

There was another pause. Behind the locked door, Elsa was panting. Around her, the snow swirled. She was afraid...so, so very afraid. The snow swirled faster. When Anna had said sorry, and the reason why, the snow had slowed. There was something, some magic...some effect...in that sentence. She couldn't pin it down...but she wanted to...she so wanted too.

She heard a creak, and hurriedly spoke out, afraid Anna would walk away again.

"Anna?"

A pause.

"Yes Elsa?"

"...Do..."

Do? Do like the musical note? But wasn't that Doe? She was pretty sure it was Doe. Doe Re Me Fah So La Te...oh hey look at that, the last one was Do. But didn't it sound the same anyway? Errgh...Elsa was talking again.

"I...Anna?"

"Yes Elsa?"

"This is hard."

"...Let me in."

"...I can't."

The silence stretched. Anna sat down, her back braced against the door. She felt the door vibrate ans was almost certain Elsa had just done the same. Perhaps she could at least see what dress the other was wearing? No. She didn't feel **that** desperate.

"Why?"

"...I'll hurt you if I do...and I'm not sure I'll get the chance to apologize like you did."

"Why? Do you have fangs or magical evil potions or eat sisters for supper?"

Through the door, Anna could bet she felt a smile. She could bet...but she wouldn't ever know who would win that bet because Elsa never opened her darn door.

"None of those."

"Are you a fire breathing dragon?"

"No."

"A wolf?"

"No."

"Err...a ghost?"

"No Anna."

"Well are you a witch?"

There was silence. Anna blinked. This conversation was all a joke, but her sister had stopped talking.

"Elsa...?"

"..."

"I'll go now."

"No!"

Anna, who was half way up and half down, sat down again hard. Her sister's voice came out of the door again.

"Anna, are you okay?"

"Ow. Sure. My butt's not though."

"...I'm a witch."

"Ooookay. They think I'm the one who's crazy. All I do is talk to Joan and the guys. You think you're a witch. Do you have green skin?"

"No Anna."

Anna was happy to hear the deadpan tone of that voice. Good, she thought Anna was being ridiculous. Perfect prime to cheer someone up. Anna grinned.

"Well okay then! All the wicked witches have green skin! You're all good. Open up?"

More silence...then...

"I promise I will...but not today."

"You can't stay in there until Coronation day you know."

More silence.

"That's ages away."  
"My fifteenth is coming soon. So it's not."

"...One day...before Coronation day."

"Okie then, we can build a snowman then!"

Anna pushed herself off the floor and rubber her behind. What was it with her ans snowmen...? The thought just suddenly hit her. About it, but she shrugged. It was the only thing she remembered about her childhood that really got Elsa to smile. Snow and ice. As she walked away however, a thought struck her, and she grumbled.

"With my luck, it'll be the very day before Coronation day. At one minute to midnight."

"At least she'd be telling the truth then. Can't argue with that one!"

"Shut up Christopher."

Anna walked past the picture of a man propping his elbow on a musket and he laughed hard and long, making it ring in her ears as she walked along the hallway, took the first left, and disappeared.

_**+~E~+**_

_For all three of you, I hope it will be interesting. This alternate version will probably be included in this story, it's one of the reasons I have such a large fluctuation of word count estimates for this story. XD. _

_I break off a little bit here in this chapter as you can see, so essentially we have reach the point of no return. Events from now on officially will begin to begin to look different, it will be small at first, much like the branches of a young tree._

_But they will begin to separate~._

_I do think this is the longest chapter on this story so far, but if could be just because of the notes. I have no time to count though~._

_~ C F Winchester._


	10. Lost

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up.  
Review responses are at the bottom!_

_I really am sorry, followers of Bonds Under Ocean Waves, but the little time I have, Sanity grabbed. It caught me..._

_I really have to say, Sanity is an oddball. It's a rather strange tool since I strip so much from it's chapters. It's a completely different writing style than my usual.  
_

_Speaking of...by this stories general standards, this chapter is almost sinfully long. By my standards, sinfully short, and by the standards of Bonds, just average._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Nine:**** Lost.**_

Elsa stood up. Almost immediately she slid down again, rather more slowly than she could have.

In truth, she didn't actually want to sit back down, and was resisting the slow slide all the way down...but her body wouldn't obey her.

It wanted to be floored.

Once she was sitting against her door, it took all her energy to remain upright...

She failed.

Her head hit the snow on the ground with a soft plop that did nothing to improve her sudden jellyfish like state. She lay there, in the snow, watching the flakes re-settle on her eye lashes.

Snow.  
Ice.  
Hail.  
Sleet.  
Blowing Blizzards.  
Freezing Mists.

Burning Cold.

Wintry Air.

_Oooooh Shut up already!_

Tossing aside the thoughts in her head, Elsa found her feet and forced her body to get up on all fours before pushing herself up to sit on the balls of her feet. Snow was everywhere. She almost flopped face down in the snow again, only this time,her elbow and hand served as a prop tool for her head.

She half sat, half lay there in contemplation, or at least tried to, but her elbow was slipping in snow, and just like that she was on the floor splayed out again.

_Sometimes I really hate the snow...scratch that._

_Most of the time._

She watched the flakes stir in the air. They had such a beauty that she was almost sick of watching.

How can you love something so much...

Yet also hate it with all your heart?

Elsa decided that trying to get up was pointless. She instead contemplated what had put her in this state in the first place.

She had almost opened her door.

Her hand had been on the knob. It had been unlocked. She had half turned the knob...and in a blast of fear it had become solid ice.

She watched it now. It had not melted, but stayed in the frigid air, a laughing reminder as to how little control she had.

Control.

Hah.

She had zero.

She continued to stare at the frozen door, and told herself instantly that she would never come out.

Only for coronation day. No sooner...

Or Later.

Lost in her fear, the snow blanketed all in it.

o~1~o

In her sleep, Anna felt a pressure in her head. It was like someone was tapping her shoulder, or brushing her ears with light fingers. It wasn't a hard pressure.

It was the kind of pressure you feel when you know someone is behind you without looking.

More of a sense.

Anna tried in vain to continue sleeping, but it was useless. She opened her eyes to an empty room. Yet the nagging feeling continued. Something was off in the castle. Something wasn't right. She quietly slipped out of bed and tossed on a drape shawl over her night clothes. Who was going to see her this late anyway?

She looked for her shoes, gave up and figured she's get no scolding for walking the castle with her slippers. This was her house anyway, how much dirtier was the castle from her room?

Honestly.

A lot of habits and upbringing rules didn't bear up to scrutiny once looked at...

That wasn't important however. This feeling was.

Slipper clad feet hurried to the door and then opened it quietly, making sure to stop it before it creaked. She lithely strode to the end of the hall.

"Out so late at night milady?"

"Something is off Cuthbert. You think you can ask around for me?"

She addressed the picture at the end of her hallway, a burly man in soldiers' dress who was painted from the waist up. His silver mustache was impressive, which made up fr his slightly balding head. His hard blue eyes scoped Anna before answering.

"Certainly Milady. I'll have someone report back to you. Double time."

"It's not urgent. It's just a feeling."

She strode off down the halls. It was only about five minutes later that she got a feeling again to go up.

Another three minutes and she felt to go up again, and her confusion grew as she threw herself up the steps, trusting instinct or whatever this was.

There was absolutely nothing up all the way to the top except the parapets and bell...

"There is something up there. I can't tell what, but something. Be careful Anna."

The message came from a suit of armor standing at attention by a staircase going up. Anna nodded grimly to him before ascending the steps. Something...

Quite suddenly, Anna lost her footing. She grabbed the banister to steady herself before continuing on...

It was only once she got up tot he top did she realize why.

o~2~o

Why had she come out here?

What madness had possessed her to come out?

Ice crystals sprung up on every footprint as Elsa walked along barefoot through an unfamiliar castle.

Why hadn't she at least brought SHOES?

She cursed the crazy that had seized her in her insomnia and dragged her form bed to fulfill a promise that she had months to fulfill at a more sane hour with more sane footwear. Or better yet, never fulfill at all.

Her sanity reclaimed her mind and she beat it back along the corridor to her room and tried to lock her door...but with growing horror she realized her body was instead grabbing her shoes and putting them definitively on her feet. She then slipped out the room again and walked off along the corridor.

No no no! She had to get back!

She paused. Her will struggled with itself. She had to admit, nothing was controlling her, it was herself she was struggling with. She actually had fulfilled the promise now. She had come out. She had opened the door. She could go back in now...

But she knew that was feeble, and she laughed at herself. What proof could she give to Anna of that?

She paused again for a new horror that made snow fall on the carpets. She had no idea where she was. She hadn't been in this castle in years. It was so...big. So huge. It was scary...too scary. Snow flew faster from her as she tried to master the fear of such an open space.

Up.

She had to go up. The castle, most buildings in fact, got smaller at the top. She could find her way around doing that...and she needed to get somewhere with protective walls.

This was too big.

Much too big.

Open space...

The snow roared.

Elsa fled.

Lost among the silently watching corridors, Elsa fled.

o~3~o

The entire staircase up here was covered in ice.

Ice.

Sure it was near winter, but ice INSIDE?

Her speed in climbing the rest of the stairs led her to the bell tower, where she was met with the sight of...

Someone. A woman.

She was beautiful...

and snow danced around her.

She stared out into the open air with a kind of longing etched into her body that Anna could sympathize with. She wanted to get out of here too. The moon beckoned her with sweet words and even sweeter, soft light, which played on the woman's near platinum blonde hair...

As suddenly as she had come up here, just so suddenly did Anna realize that she kinda didn't come here to stare at this woman. She hadn't ever seen her before...at least she was sure she hadn't...but she can't see her face so howwasshesuppossedtoknowandthewomanhadsnowaroundherlikeablanketandblizzardsothiswasnotnormal...

Slow down.

Deep Breath.

Cough because you took it too deep and then stumble on the ice like a fool because you coughed and fall because you stumbled like a fool on the ice that you stumbled on from coughing because you took too deep a breath of cold air.

Great.

The snow whipped into a frenzy and the woman whipped about too to stare at Anna. The two met eyes. A nudge pushed on the back of Anna's brain and a word slipped into her mouth.

"...Elsa...?"

The two stared at each other some more. Again, Anna felt a nudge as her mind pushed her onwards.

_Oookay...Seems like I have to make the second move too...again._

"...Elsa? You're Elsa aren't you? Well...uhh...wow. Err...you turned out nicely...not that you shouldn't have I mean I didn't expect you to be ugly but I mean err I haven't see you in years and I didn't know what to expect and umm...hi."

She didn't mention the swirling snow, though she noticed it calmed a little. Just for a small bit. Then it returned full force when Elsa realized that, duh...this was Anna.

Next to her.

With no protective door or gloves in the way.

Looking right at her snow.

Shit.

It was like as if her sister had found the chamber pot and proceeded to paint the walls with it's contents.

"Anna."

_Great. All she says is one word. This is like trying to fill a bucket that has no bottom. Well. Two can play this game!_

"Elsa."

_Ha!_

"..."

_Nothing. Crap. New plan!_

Anna opened her mouth again and then promptly slipped when she took a step forwards, but her hand was still on the rail, so she ended up just hanging on it. It was a brilliant display for a first impression. Nicely done.

Not.

Elsa blinked and then swallowed a lump in her throat.

"You...err...oh no..."

Her eyes had zeroed in on the patch of white hair that Anna had adorning her head. Oh god...oh god no. She thought she had forgotten that mark, had tried to forget it to get the strength to come out here...but there it was plain as day, the reminder of why she should never be near Anna.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come here. I'll see you coronation day."

She took a few steps, but Anna, displaying a quick ability to adapt to the ice, caught her hand. Elsa froze.

_Conceal. Conceal. Conceal. Concealconcealconcealconcealdon'tfeeldon'tfeelshe'llfreezeshe'llfreezeit'llbemyfault!Again!_

"Anna...let go...please."

"No."

Snow drifted around them both now...but soon, very soon, it would be storming. Elsa couldn't hold it back, it was coming soon...she grit her teeth and set her feet down against it mentally. Anna however, broke the concentration.

"Is this what you meant?"

Thrown off kilter by the question, she looked at Anna in confusion.

"What you meant by being a witch?"

_Oh._ _Of course. She hates them just as I do. Maybe now she'll stop asking for snowmen...thank god._

_...Who am I kidding...this will make me miserable._

"Yes. I'm sorry, it's repulsive. I'll go."

She tired to pull from Anna's grip, but the other was surprisingly strong.

"Anna, if you don't let go I'll freeze you solid."

"You wouldn't."

Elsa tried in vain to break free. Anna's face set and she let go, but moved to block the steps.

" I would! I can't control it! I can't stop it! It controls me!"

"How have you tried?"

The question, again, threw Elsa for a loop, and just as the snow had been gathering from her tirade about it controlling her, it settled again as Elsa's confusion took over. Anna noted the change. In the back of her head, she heard the far off voice of a suit of armor.

"Mayhaps it's how she feels?"

_How she feels huh?_

"What?"

Anna repeated her question. Elsa's face screwed up.

"By trying to conceal it, trying to push it away, wearing gloves usually works, or it did for a while. I-"

"Hide away in your room so it doesn't hurt anybody...besides you."

The snow swirled down a little as Elsa looked at Anna in surprise. Anna smiled a wide smile and let go of the steps to come closer. She almost fell again but turned fall into a spin on the ice. Elsa watched in some small horror as Anna made fun with this snow curse...didn't she know that she could be frozen into a block of ice any second?

Of course not. She had her memories removed.

"It's stupid to bottle up your feelings Elsa, or hide what you are~."

Elsa watched as Anna slid around her.

"...What?"

"Look around you."

Elsa obeyed, but she didn't see the point, until she realized the snow was still falling lightly. She stared at it in just as much confusion as she had Anna. It had been about to burst out of her just moment before but now...

"The more you try to hide who you are, the more who you are wants to come out~."

Elsa almost wanted to grab Anna and shake her for the singsong, carefree tone of voice in the face of such danger...but instead he watched her own snow falling lightly on the floor. Anna stopped sliding by grabbing the banister as it came back her way. She piped up again.

"You know, I missed you."

The snow stayed calm.

"We used to play so much together, all the time!"

It swirled a little faster.

_Said the wrong thing._

"Elsa, what do you say when you are trying to stop it?"

The snow banked a little. Confusion. Then...it sped up as she spoke the line.

"Conceal it, don't feel it."

"Huh. Well that's dumb."

Again the snow banked, and Elsa looked at Anna in dumb shock. It made her burst out laughing. The snow swirled a tiny bit lower. She recovered enough to sober after a short while.

"That's hiding who you are Elsa. The more you hide, the more it fights to come out. Let it go."

The snow slowed again. Anna smiled.

"You know, all the servants think I'm crazy?"

Elsa looked at her questioningly. She happily pointed to a picture up here. It was empty of any people, but depicted a green landscape with what she assumed was a farmhouse in the distance. The grass looked enticing as it swayed in the gentle breeze the painter had depicted.

"Of course, there is no one on there, but I talk to them. The pictures with people in them. They are company like no one else after all. Not like I'm going to get a response form this one though...not a soul in here. Beautiful scenery though isn't it?"

Elsa's face shadowed. She watched as Anna examined the picture with growing apprehension. Her mind dredged up a singsong Anna, a girl she could only hear, pleading for her to come out the door, for she thought that...

"Some company is overdue, I've started talking to the pictures on the walls!"

She had later said that no, they don't say anything back, but that's why she needs someone who does!

"These pictures...say things back to you?"

Anna looked up from her examination, oblivious because Elsa's tone was so different from the servants. She didn't hear the usual open fear; she was hearing guilt, full guilt and a taste of veiled fear.

"Well of course not!"

Elsa's apprehension dropped.

"This picture has no one in it silly! I mean, if it were Joan or Cuthbert sure but not these!"

Her fear rose up again, and the snow swirled a little faster. Anna took no notice as she turned around and looked at her.

"My point it there's no point hiding it. If I do people will just find out anyway since it will fight to come out. If I'm honest with myself, it doesn't matter! Why try to hide it and make myself miserable as well as other people?"

Elsa was lost. Her parents had tried. Tried so hard to let her control and conceal her powers...and they had instead blossoms and forced their way through. Anna was mad. Mad because of her...but despite being mad...she had to admit, there was some power in her words...something that kept her snow at bay. She cautiously let her fear drop and tried to take a deep breath.

She couldn't let go of her fear.

"Tag!"

_What?_

Elsa felt the tap, an then saw Anna racing about the room like a loose chicken without a head, following no discernible pattern. Elsa blinked. What nonsense was this now? She watched Anna race about for half a minute, carefree, before the girl stopped short near an ice sheet on the floor and looked at her. Her face fell.

"Don't tell me you forgot how to play..."

"Play? This was a game?"

Anna slapped a hand to her forehead and groaned.

"You're supposed to chase me Elsa! I tagged you! You're supposed to chase me to tag me back! Unless I'm on base though...base is a safe place...If you tag me, I have to chase you."

Elsa blinked. She was lost. Anna sighed.

"What do you play when you're bored Elsa?"

Elsa looked off to the side and didn't answer. Anna rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, you can't tell me that you have a library in that room of yours. You HAVE to get bored staring at the same four walls all day."

Elsa's answer came in a small voice.

"I play Chess."

"With who?"

"Myself."

Most. Lonely. Thing.. Ever. Anna almost cried for it. Heck if she ever needed to play chess, she's go to Arthur, he was a master. Even SHE had chess buddy.

"...Play with me."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"The pieces are made of ice."

"Oooh! Sounds fun!"

"I'm serious Anna!"

Anna smiled.

"So am I. Play with me."

"You'll be frozen solid."

Anna only smiled all the wider.

"If that's your way of saying you'll beat me think again~."

"I'm serious-"

Anna ran up to her and before Elsa could react, her finger was over her mouth. She had nothing to stop, no time to prepare.

"I've lasted this long haven't I?

The snow, unnoticed by the both of them, stopped for just a single moment.

_**+~E~+**_

_Not snowman Curry, They are gonna build snowmen! Then have them play bughouse with them. XD._

_If you can't wait Scholar, then don't! XD._

"_I'm only 14" I do plan on continuing this. I do like to base logic and all forces, no matter how ugly, in my stories. I feel it ups the realism._

_Shtoops, I occasionally like to read the elsanna fics, but some go a bit far. I'm unsure if I will use the mechanism here, but you will see them act as a family unit._

_Double, I believe that for all Anna's supposed "insanity" she is the most aware person in this story. XD._

_~ C F Winchester._


	11. Understanding

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up.  
Review responses are at the bottom!_

_...This chapter sat in my documents for about a week. I had thought I had submitted it. ._. _

_Work is indeed killing meh. =S._

_Softly._

_But still killing._

_Next chapter will most likely begin to explore more into these two bonding, but for now, all I can do is play games, but don't worry._

_This chapter has relevance for later on._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Ten:**** Understanding.**_

Elsa moved a pawn directly in front of the opposing knight.

Anna slid one of her own pawns forwards. Elsa took it with the same pawn. Anna smiled and then took the pawn with a bishop.

"Check."

Elsa frowned. She moved her King back a space. Anna's knight snaked around and took one of her pawns.

"Check."

Her frown deepening, Elsa scanned the board before moving her king back again. Anna tilted her head slightly in thought. Elsa watched her in interest. Anna moved her bishop again.

"Check."

She had to admit, once you got past the rather eccentric amount of energy and almost sinfully cheery demeanor that wrapped around her, Anna was rather...

Elsa's eyes swept the board again.

...dangerous.

"Are you sure this isn't checkmate?"

"Nope, you have a few moves."

Elsa looked again as the snow fell lightly around them. Her eyes lit upon her rook. But even as her hand reached for it, Anna's eyes flashed. Elsa withdrew her hand, thinking again. If she moved her pawn...but then Anna would just take it. She could try taking Anna's rook with her own...but that was pointless, it would be a useless check, as the king could just take her piece. Her eyes fell on her bishop.

She shifted it to take Anna's.

Anna's knight immediately was moved and took her bishop.

Elsa, seeing nothing to take, moved her king to what she hoped was a safer place. Anna's smile hitched a degree higher, and Elsa immediately felt that her move wasn't quite so safe anymore. The snow intensified a hair.

"I'm castling."

"Wait, what?"

Elsa looked up at her in confusion, but the next second, as Anna opened her mouth, Elsa remembered.

"Wait, don't tell me. I remember...who taught you how to play Anna? Did...did father...?"

Anna's face didn't move, but her answer was a tad stiffer than ordinary. She shook her head.

"No. Arthur did."

"Arthur is...?"

Her smile returned in a small way.

"One of my friends. He lives on the second floor, near the library."

Elsa swallowed. That again. A picture taught her chess now. Her stomach squirmed uncomfortably.

"Father taught me."

"Check."

Elsa looked down at the board again. Anna's castle had moved her rook in range of her king. She moved her king to a safer spot.

Anna instantly took Elsa's rook with her remaining bishop. Elsa waited, but the word "check" didn't come. She had grown so accustomed to hearing it lately. She took a breath in small relief and moved to take a pawn with her knight.

Around her the snow settled into tiny flakes. Anna watched them out of the corner of her eye as she picked up her own knight and moved it in a weird angle. Elsa's eyes widened as her knight was taken.

"I didn't see that."

"I know."

Elsa looked at her remaining arsenal. A bishop, rook and knight each, plus a queen and five pawns.

Elsa swallowed and decided now was the time to use her authority. She moved her queen to take a pawn. This move put Anna's bishop and one of her rooks in trouble.

Anna had one bishop, two rooks, two knights and three pawns plus her queen

Anna moved a pawn to block one pathway, her bishop. Elsa moved to take the rook. A small smile grew on her face.

...and then it disappeared as she watched a pawn take her queen.

"...Damn."

"Should have taken the pawn."

"The rook looked so much more rewarding."

Anna's grin widened into feral proportions.

"Sweet in the mouth, bitter out the other end~. Taking my pawn would have put me in check."

Elsa's eyes swept the area and affirmed that with a grimace.

"...and I so badly wanted to say it too."

She moved a pawn to take Anna's guilty pawn.

Anna took her bishop with a her rook. Her hand held up two fingers.

"I know I know. I only have a knight and bishop left with all these pawns."

Anna shook her head.

"I meant we can decide this with best two out of three. 'Cides. Your king can still take pieces."

Elsa looked over the board with a light grumble.

"One space at a time..."

She moved to take another pawn of Anna's. Anna only had one pawn left...

Anna's bishop jumped and took Elsa's.

Elsa used her last knight and took the bishop, seeing too late that...

"Oh crap."

Anna's rook took the knight.

"Check."

One rook and two knights against a bunch of pawns. Now Anna leaned back and looked up at the roof.

"Ugh...I'll just have to move this-"

"If you move that pawn to block me you'll lose."

"Huh?"

Anna pointed to the pawn.

"You moved that and I'll just take it, then none of your pawns will be able to reach my rook, since they can't go back. They have to move forwards. They won't be able to protect the king at all. Your king will have to go it alone. I can move my knights in and retreat my rook, so any pawns that move up will get taken... meanwhile; my last pawn gets to the other side of the board."

Her finger traced the ice board.

"...Plus..."

She pointed to her queen.

"This girl can move off her throne."

"Then what would you do?"

Her finger dropped to the snow, tracing lines off to the side of the board.

"I'd move my king. It's the only other option. If that was my side, I'd try to bait you into bringing out your queen and trap her into getting taken by a pawn, while my king played hooky with the knights and rook. If my pawns got to the other side, I'd get my queen back."

She sighed as she stopped tracing demonstrative lines in the snow. She smiled.

"It makes no sense to ask me though, since that is what I would do, and I'm your opponent, so if I can tell you so easy..."

"You can prepare to stop me just as easy."

Elsa took her pointer finger and placed it against her thumb before pinging her king and knocking it down. Anna sighed.

"Aww. Don't give up Elsa."

Elsa abolished the board and pieces, and then drew them back up into a fresh game. Anna smiled at the sight.

"I have got to learn how to do that."

Elsa made a face.

"No, you don't. It's a terrible ability. I can't control it."

Anna gave her a small smile.

"That's because you never try to. You try to hide it, not control it. It's perfectly harmless right now isn't it?"

Elsa hazarded a glance upwards.

"...Maybe...for now."

She looked back to the chessboard and assigned herself the first move. Her clouded ice pieces marched forwards against Anna's clear glass like ones, but all the while, she was still thinking, at the end, when the two left the game, Elsa still had gone no further than to continue to think that same line.

_Maybe for now..._

_But soon._

o~1~o

Elsa sighed. She tried again with no success. Her snow continued to fall. Though she had to admit, the snow wasn't blizzard like today...but her frustration at being unable to stop it made the snow rather heavy.

She needed Anna.

Anna was the one who could stop it.

The one who spoke to pictures.

She shivered involuntarily. She had promised to come out again when they parted the night before.

Anna had managed to do something in one night that her parents had failed to do in over fourteen years. What she had failed to do in nearly eighteen.

She had controlled it. Her words made it ebb and flow.

...and that was scary.

She thought again to the bouncing, racing red head with the ever present smile and the endless mind for chatter. Chatter directed at inanimate objects.

Anna was insane.

A chess piece moved and took a queen in her mind.

Insane yes.

Stupid? Unable? Unaware?

No.

Elsa looked outside. It was getting late again.

Soon she'd have to step outside again...

The thought of that task daunted her to no end.

No, she wouldn't.

She promised she'd come out.

She didn't say it had to be the very next day.

_**+~E~+**_

_I've never played Silent Hill before to be honest. XD._

_If I don't differentiate between he and she, or if you see a he where a she should be, it is most likely a typo. _

_C F Winchester._


	12. Unhinged

_For anyone who cares to vote, I have a rate me poll up.  
Review responses are at the bottom!_

_I don't own Frozen or any of it's affiliates, copyrights or other named rights._

_Since I have been here so long, I typically think over my stories a lot before I write them down. Thus I can usually have deep seated reasons for why I do anything at all. Even stupid little details no one will remember or care about have whole back stories and mini arcs attached to them, and when I deploy them, more than once have I seen a review telling me they completely forgot about that, and asking me just how much planning I do before hand._

_Truth be told, whenever I start a story, I usually know exactly how it will end, how long it should be, what events will be in the main arcs...right at that starting point. _

_Sanity was different because I had no plan for it save to explore Anna's mental state from a different angle and with a more brutal brush than a children's musical would usually dare._

_I do know how the story will end now though. :D_

_This chapter sat, complete, for days before I uploaded it. I just wanted to put something more, but never had the time._

_~ C F Winchester._

_**Sanity**_

_**Chapter Eleven: ****Unhinged?**_

"What will you do?"

"I don't know Joan. I don't. If I could...I would take it from her."

Anna felt a smirk slide into the voice of Joan as the woman leaned against her frame.

"So you care for her again I see."

Anna made a face halfway between grimace and frown.

"I always did. I just got tired of asking every day if she wanted to play. I figured if she didn't want to, she didn't want to. She's going to be a queen soon, she should be able to know what she wants."

"I hear a but coming."

Anna smiled at that.

"Of course you do. Well...BUT...I never expected her to be a walking blizzard. It's..."

"Scary?"

"No. It's fun, I love it...but she doesn't. She tries to hide it..."

Joan sighed as a servant turned the corner and began to walk up the corridor.

"She hides it and so it continues to fall."

"Yes."

Anna took no heed of the maid. They never paid her a look besides one that said they wanted to get as far away as possible. I mean seriously...let's say, for just one moment, that she WAS actually crazy, that Joan here was nothing but a reflection of her long gone mind.

"Joan, I wish I could help her more...she's just so...sad inside. She made a face when she saw my hair like if she had seen a ghost."

Being a little...unhinged was fun then. Besides...it's not like it was contagious!

Speaking of contagious, the maid coughed a little, as if to announce herself to Anna. Anna turned to look at her with a smile. The maid flinched as if the smile were a gateway to a knife or sword in the back.

"Errr...Your grace..."

Sheesh. No time for this...

"Maybe it was something about your hair? You have a patch of white in it you never explained to me you know."

Anna looked back to Joan, ignoring the stuttering maid.

"My white patch? I was born with it...I think."

"You think?"

Anna scrunched up her face in thought, then scratched the back of her head absently.

"I think. I can't really remember clearly that far back...but I might not have had it when I was a tot...

"Your grace?"

Anna turned back with the same smile, a little more forced this time.

"How may I help you?"

The maid seemed to be a nervous rabbit and she seemed to be string too tight to even jump properly. She gave a little hop that probably would have sent her flying twelve feet in the air had she been relaxed enough. She stammered some more.

"I...I need...I need to dust..that picture."

"Oh bother. I hate when they dust me. Thy always leave it flying about to cling to the oddest places, then you have to come and wipe me off...well Anna. Something about your head bothers her, and your white patch is all I can think of. Did she seem disgusted?"

"No. Scared."

The maid jumped again. Anna shook her head.

"Not you miss."

She only dumbly nodded and again tried to get her point across. Anna sighed.

"I'll talk to you later Joan. It seems you have an appointment with a duster."

"Just don't do anything rash Anna."

"I won't!"

Rushing off, she left the maid looking apprehensively at her retreating back. The maid looked to the picture with nervous eyes.

Same unmoving picture of Joan of Arc, standing there regally with a haughty look in her eyes. She hastily dusted the picture, almost swearing that the pictures face scowled for the briefest of moments as she dusted it's nose.

She dusted it again.

Then she went off in a hurry to rest.

For a good while.

Pictures did not scowl of their own will.

She needed rest.

Her grace was unhinged.

She was not going to catch the same disease.

+~-1-~+

Laughter.

In the night.

An empty castle, bare and yet full of sleeping souls.

Save for two.

Who laughed.

Elsa panted as she cautiously took a peek around a corner of a hallway. She couldn't run any more.

So she hid.

Tag was a game that often seemed to overlap with Hide and Seek, as far as Elsa could tell.

Why was it so fun to be chased?

To hide from the seeker?

What was it that elicited such a visceral and pure response?

Elsa's ears caught a strain of sound, and then a soft step. She bolted from her spot, and then a flash of red was seen from the side of her eye.

"Caught you!"

"Not yet!"

Eventually she'd get caught. Anna was faster. She knew the castle...and besides...

Sometimes, snow would still fall on the ground.

Speaking of knowing the castle...

"I'm lost."

Elsa sat on the floor, drawn up and small.

The snow was falling again, and Anna came in close. Elsa tried to beat her back, but Anna came right up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't even know my own home any more. I don't know where I am...how can I rule a kingdom when I can't even navigate my own house?"

The snow fell harder.

Anna smiled.

"With help."

"What?"

Elsa looked up at her, aghast. Anna knelt down to her.

"You don't rule a kingdom by yourself. Don't you have a court?"

Elsa's eyes expanded a little.

"You know, with jesters! With an annoying bishop that bugs you with stuff and has an upturned nose!"

Despite herself, Elsa smiled. The snow slowed.

"You're not lost."

Elsa's smile turned a little downwards.

"I am."

"No you're not."

"Why?"

Anna tilted her head to the side. The white band of her hair caught in the small light around them and flashed, it seemed to draw all light from around them to glow. Her whole head seemed to do that. Elsa wondered if it was just the property of her sister's head, or if hair usually seemed to glow if it was bright colored in low light.

"Because I'm not lost, and you're with me!"

The snow stopped in shock. The head tilted a mite further.

"We're together, so you can never be lost with me!"

That sentence stilled Elsa. How could she say something so...frivolous?

You can never be lost with me.

Really?

"This way!"

Really?

_**+~E~+**_

I usually rise at or before 6 AM too.

_**HEADS UP THIS IS A LONG RESPONSE.**_

_**Yes shtoops, I wrote you a whole counter argument.**_

_**(You know, I now see Double's review and it practically sums it up, this response.)**_

_Shtoops, I understood you fully. However, let me stop you there, for there are a few things that you are a bit off on. _

_First off, while Chess is considered an intellectuals game, being more intelligent does not equate to being better at it. XD._

_Anna has had the same amount of time as Elsa to do whatever she liked, being alone for that same amount of time, and she had the added bonus of being able to move about freely. Elsa often kept herself locked up in her room, and as mentioned in an earlier chapter, she cannot possibly have an entire library in there. Also, uncontrollable ice and snow plus paper books? _

_Equals a no no. _

_Now don't get me wrong, the movie evidences Elsa being intelligent at least to the average to above average degree, she mentioned the word "fractals" in her "Let it Go" rendition, which is not an average term to be used lightly..._

_...but the need to visualize a building and use ice as a building substance for it is not the same as drawing up a complicated plan an architect would. Much of her building is raw power and imagination, not pure mathematics and physics, her powers allow her to bend those rules a little, like her spiraling staircases of ice that more or less can defy gravity at some points. It's raw power and visualization that pushes her on._

"_A wizard did it" comes to mind as a writing trope for this situation. _

_To besides, with a good eye, mathematics to build an object can be supplemented and sometimes thrown out the window._

_As for mental discipline, it has been shown multiple times that Elsa's powers are not handled in such a way. The control for her power is not logic and force, but emotion, in sorcery this is called "Heart" magic. Her powers can run wild without her if need be, as shown, while a power that needed mental force would not manifest until tremendous focus was shown. _

_Now, about Anna. Most people do this, and it upsets me some. _

_(This isn't directed at you by the way, it's simply written to show a point, therefore the following may not fully apply to you.)_

_There is no evidence in the movie that shows Anna is unintelligent. She is naive due to her upbringing, but in no way is she worthy of the constant looking down that she receives. She is not a helpless baby who needs to be watched lest she crawl out a window._

_Anna is energetic and clumsy, she's plucky. She has a sarcastic streak, but she's caring at heart, and unfailingly loyal to a cause she dedicates herself to. Stubborn. _

_In this story I plan to explore this very thoroughly. XD. _

_Now, about the chess. _

_First off, Elsa has been playing by herself. (Depressing! =S)_

_If you believe Anna, she has had a partner. (A picture of a man named Arthur.) _

_Now, lets assume that Arthur is a figment of imagination. He;s still a different persona with a different strategy, essentially an alter ego that plays like a new person. Anna is stimulated by an actual opponent, and can grow. The same holds true if Arthur is a real person. He still can stimulate Anna to grow._

_Elsa plays against herself provides little growth. The same strategy played on both sides only lets you defend against the same kind of opponent. _

_Elsa's character profile is as follows: Introverted. Reactive. Defensive. Passive, Calculating-Openly._

_Anna's char profile is as thus: Extroverted, Active, Probing, Active. Calulating-Covertly._

_In chess, the game works by placing both players in a situation they have to analyze and then respond to. In this game, Anna is the one who's making the situations. She's the active one, the attacker, the one who initiates. Elsa reacts to whatever situation Anna makes. _

_In essence, play-style wise, Elsa is defending against attack. That's her main objective. Protect. _

_Anna is the Shepard, she is creating these situations in which Elsa has to get out of, and Elsa is always choosing to follow her around and defend her turf first; thus Anna can probe, attack, and bait her. In chess, (or any board game really...) You have to be willing to give and take. _

_Anna, the active one; is the most willing, personality wise, to adapt and change, to dare and to try. The ever curious and eager beaver. Against a stoic opponent like Elsa, Anna can run circles around her. _

_A stone pillar will fall, reeds can bend. XD_

_Even if we disregard all of this and simply look at intelligence level, Anna has a large amount of observational experience that can balance out the scale between the stale and stunted life Elsa has grown with. _

_In the modern world, without powers; Anna would be street smart and Elsa, book smart, and when it comes to being worldly...You can't just be book smart anymore. You need to be able to communicate and read not only people but a situations._

_Now I know._

_The move shows Anna falling pretty hard for the "fake" Hans. Understand though. Anna was completely new to that realm of life. Even Elsa, though she says Anna can't marry a person she just met, has no good follow up arguments. She herself is new to it, and she can only deal with it by withdrawing inward. _

_Neither girl bore up well there, and I think if Hans had tried Elsa with a different brush, he might have had her fall too...if Anna were the one with powers and throne, Elsa probably would have fallen hard. XD_

_**TL:DR: Anna has many factors going for her that allow her to be a good logical choice for being able to play circles around Elsa.**_

_I've seen Frozen once. Just once. For the birthday of a child I was babysitting for a friend of mine. She had wanted to watch it, so I watched it with her since her parents were busy that night. About the best way I could spend that night if you ask me, because she won't remember it as just that._

_Neither will I for that matter..._

_C F Winchester._


End file.
